What year was plastic invented?

Question

What year was plastic invented?

Answer 1

I belive the correct year was 1855.

Answer 2

It depends on which plastic you are talking about but the first plastic based on a synthetic polymer was made from phenol and formaldehyde, invented by Leo Hendrik Baekeland in 1909, the product being known as Bakelite. All other plastics before this such as pyroxylin invented by Alexander Parkes in 1855 and the vulcanization of rubber by Goodyear in 1839 were natural plastics.

Answer 3

The first ever plastic was invented in 1862 in London, England.  But it was names Parkosene after it's inventor (Alexander Parkes).

Next came celluloid in 1868, and some claim this is the first plastic.  Probably because it was when the term "plastic" was first used to describe this new category of materials that was being invented.